Highlights

...from Ashley's first week of college. You'll just have to indulge this mama a little bit here. LOL! Logan & Ashley going to the Freshman cookout.

Scavenger hunt with the Brother/Sister dorms.

In front of the 'Spirit Rock'.

Logan picked Ashley up & brought her to church last Sunday.

Ashley & her room-mate, Taheshah on their first day of classes....this past Monday morning. They both had History together, so that was nice.

First convo of the year.

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Well, we have the first week of college behind us now & all seems to be going well. Ashley is loving college life, her room-mates & for the most part, even her classes. She LOVES her Bible professor, her History prof & also her GNED prof. She says English will be her hardest class, but I guess that's to be expected. She's also excited about an upcoming 'field trip' with her photography class......in Oct, they will be taking a walking tour of downtown Lynchburg. She LOVES going downtown to take pictures so this will be a special treat for her.

I loved this little tid-bit that I read on my friend, Inger's blog last night & thought it was worth sharing here. She posted this as she sent her daughter, Shae, back to school at LU just the other week.


"ENTRUST YOUR LOVED ONES TO ME; release them into My protective care, They are much safer with Me than in your clinging hands. If you let a loved one become an idol in your heart, you endanger that one-as well as yourself.................When you release your loved ones to Me, you are free to cling to My hand. As you entrust others into My care, I am free to shower blessings on them. My Presence will go with them wherever they go and I will give them rest. This same Presence stays with you, as you relax and place your trust in Me. Watch to see what I will do."

~~an excerpt from "Jesus Calling"

Latest Scrappiness...

I've been trying to catch up/keep up with the Blue Plate Special challenges over at Cookin' Up Creations all while trying to replenish my stock pile of hand-made cards. So.....I've been doing a lot of cards instead of layouts where I can for the challenges. The ones below were done for an Art Inspiration challenge.

These two 'Fall' cards were done for my own stitching challenge.

And these next two cards were for a challenge to use your own handwriting/hand-drawn title.

This layout below....Alli took the picture of Charlie out in the front yard.....was done for a challenge to use outdoor photos. Anything from working in the garden, kids digging in the dirt, pets, etc.....as long as it was outdoors.

Crochet & Scrappin'

It felt so weird this evening with just the two youngest kids here with me. So quiet. I fixed an early supper of home-made mac& cheese & sandwiches because Chris & Jon were headed out for the evening. Some friends of theirs from church have a band & they were going to be playing at a little coffee shop in town called the Drowsy Poet. They were picking Ashley up too. I love the fact that they are all such good friends.....that they enjoy hanging out & doing things TOGETHER! Such a blessing!! Anyway, after our earlier-than-usual supper, I decided to take my crocheting outside under the Dogwood tree for a while. It was SO nice out.....the sun was hanging low over the mountain & the nicest little breeze was blowing. And so I sat & enjoyed some quiet hooky time.....working on my hexes.

They're coming along nicely & I should be done here very soon. I'll be glad because I've got the 'itch' to start on something new.

Pablo was enjoying the evening along with me.

Here are a couple of cards that I recently finished up. They were done for a challenge to use dryer sheets to make some layered flowers. Since I don't use dryer sheets, I decided I'd use an old coffee filter. The card on the right has the coffee filter flower.....bunches of layers with some glitter glue decorating the edges & a decorative brad center. The flower on the left was made from the paper towel that I dried the coffee filter on. It had also taken on that cool coffee-stained look & I hated to just throw it out, so I made a flower out that too. I love how they turned out & will definitely be saving some more of my coffee filters for future use. ;-)

This challenge was 'Back to Basics'.......no patterned papers, but we could stamp card stock with ink/stamps to make our own patterns & also no fancy embellishments, but we could use punches and/or diecuts. I went VERY simple on this one since I had a lot of pictures. The pictures were taken back in 1992 when they opened the Walton's Mt. Museum up the road here in Schuyler, VA & several of The Walton's cast members were here to help them celebrate.

Some OLD pictures of Clay....taken in his dorm at Liberty back in 1984. This was done for a sketch challenge & we also had to use red/white/blue on our layout.....which worked out perfectly with photos at LU.

Ooooh, Yummy!

Love the colors in this afghan! I want to make one. It would be so pretty for fall. Like I need to make another blanket. ;-)

Soul Surfer

Alli & I rented/watched this last night. I had wanted to go see it in the dollar theater, but it just never worked out for us. Really good....inspiring movie.

Soul Surfer is a 2011 American drama film about the life of surfer Bethany Hamilton. At the age of thirteen, Hamilton lost her arm to a shark attack. The film details the events surrounding this attack and her struggle during the aftermath. The film is directed by Sean McNamara, who based the screenplay on Hamilton's autobiography of the same name and on the filmmakers' interviews with the family. The title refers to a term coined in the 1960s to denote someone who surfs purely for pleasure, but the word soul has a double meaning as a reference to Hamilton's Christian faith, which helped her recover her surfing career after the attack. AnnaSophia Robb stars as Hamilton, and Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt star as Hamilton's parents.

I snitched this picture from Logan's facebook. The girls were on their way to the big Freshman Cookout Thursday evening. They have been having a blast so far!

My College Girl!

I love this picture! Clay took Ashley out to lunch at Red Lobster yesterday for lunch.....a special Daddy-Date for the two of them. The rest of us had lunch here & then headed out to meet them on campus. Her new home away from home.....Dorm 3

Ashley's top bunk & the corner of her desk. They'll get everything better situated & rearranged, I'm sure.

Michael, Alli & Ashley in front of her door.

I Need Thee, O I Need Thee!

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.

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Isaiah 46:3b-4, “You whom I have upheld since your were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you...” (NIV 1984)

Love it!!

Prayer Walk

The Office of Student Leadership starts the semester with the annual Prayer Walk around campus. Student leaders pray at various places around campus and for their residence halls before concluding with prayer in the DeMoss Hall Grand Lobby. Photo taken on August 13, 2011.

Wow.....this is just amazing to me.....to know that not just my daughter's campus, but her classrooms & even her dorm & room have been prayed over for the upcoming school year! Such a blessing!!

4H, Entomology & Backpacks

This page was done for a sketch challenge & we were also supposed to use yearbook or school pictures. Since I couldn't readily put my hands on any of my own yearbook pictures from back in the day.....and neither Sarah nor any of my kids ever went to school to have yearbook pics, I decided to use what I had handy. I ran across this photo of Sarah with the Blue Ribbons that she won at the 4H show. Some of the fun learning experiences you can take advantage of when you Homeschool. The layout below, was done for an 'Entomology' challenge. We were 'collecting' fancy butterflies for our projects......meaning we were to create a pretty/fancy/extra-special butterfly to embellish our pages. I used a precut butterfly as the base & then fussy-cut another butterfly out of the patterned paper & stapled it on top of the other one. I then, painted the edges of both butterflies with crystal glitter glue & added some crystal bling to the wings.

For this challenge we were to use a backpack of some sort to decorate our pages.....or scrap photos or our kids with the new back packs heading back to school. Again, since we homeschool...I don't have photos like that so I chose to make these cute little 'Back 2 School' cards.

Reunited....

'Reunited & it feels so good!' Don't you just love surprises?! This past Thursday morning I got a message from Ashley Cates asking if it was ok for her to come up for a weekend visit this weekend. A SURPRISE visit. Anyway, between both Ashleys & myself we were actaully able to pull this off yesterday. Chris had absolutely NO idea who was waiting for him in Maw's kitchen yesterday afternoon when we got there. It was awesome!!

This was the first time they had seen each other in 3 long months.....since graduation day to be exact. I was SO glad that we were actually able to pull this off! That picture just kinda says it all, don't ya think!!

Purple Pumpkin

It's GIVEAWAY time again! Want to top up your stash, or maybe try out Purple Pumpkin embellishments for the first time? Well, here's your chance to get your hands on some goodies before our next sale in September.

So how can you enter? It's easy!

1. Be a follower of this blog.

2. Post about this giveaway on your blog with a link back to here.

3. After you've done that, just leave a comment after this post. For an extra entry, post about this giveaway on facebook, or on any message boards, and then leave an extra comment :)

This giveaway is open to everyone, no matter where in the world you live. Entries close at midnight AEST on the 30th of August, and the winner will be announced on the 31st of August.

Good Luck!

Michael's New Bow

Michael wanted a new bow for his birthday this year because he had kind of outgrown his old bow. For a couple of months now he & Clay have been shopping around.....both in actual stores & online. Pricing & watching numerous bows on ebay. The whole process is really such a cool learning experience for the boys. Again, it's just one of the 'Unschooling' aspects that I really love!! Well, he finally came home with his new birthday bow day before yesterday. They bought it at a shop somewhere between Charlottesville & Richmond.....they came across it while searching for bow shops in our area online. Just look at that form! While in the shop, Clay said Michael was trying out the different bows & the guy was REALLY impressed with Michael's form when he drew the bow back & asked if he had ever shot before. Clay laughed & told him about the bear Michael killed last year & told the guy how both boys practice ALL the time! Another benefit of homeschooling. I told Michael that his teacher just gave him an A+ in archery after hearing that guy praise him the way he did!

The new Bear Assault Bow. He is one happy camper!!!

I'm so thankful that they get to spend time outside doing the things they are passionate about!

One Week

One week from today we'll be moving our precious Ashley-Girl into her dorm at Liberty University. I'm sitting here typing through the tears this morning asking y'all to pray for me...for us (this is going to be real hard for daddy, I'm afraid)...as we walk through this door into another new chapter of our lives.

I was sitting outside this morning reading Stormie Omartian's The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children & I Just wanted to share this part with you:

"Lord, I rededicate (Ashley) to You. I pray she will serve You all the days of her life & that she will glorify You in every way. As long as she lives, I pray she will be uner Your watchful eye. I again release her into Your hands. In Jesus' name I pray.

Then worship God, as Hannah did & give glory to Him who is greater than anything you or your adult child faces now or will ever face in the future. Thank God for all the great gifts He has put into her. Praise Him for the wonderful tings He is going to do in her life through your prayers.

The only way to have peace about your adult child is to know that you have covered her in prayer. When you can say as Hannah did, "For this child I prayed!!"


**And just a little side note, but that's the VERY verse that we used on Ashley's birth announcements when we sent them out almost 18 years ago. What an awesome feeling to know that for 18+ years "For this child I have prayed!"**

Bone Collector Seminar

MY pictures from our day Saturday at King's Dominion.

Kings Dominion's Intimidator 305, a 305 ft (92.464 m) tall gigacoaster. The ride features a cable lift hill, an 85° first drop and a maximum speed of at least 94 mph (145 km/h). The ride, is themed to the late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt.

That's my kiddos there heading up that steep hill. This was Alli's first time riding it.....brave girl!!

And here they come......it's almost over. Believe it or not this was the first time ever that Clay & I neither one rode the first ride. I'm just so over it all now.....it's funny. I don't mean to be an old fuddy-duddy, but I had NO desire whatsoever to stand in those awful long, hot lines to ride rides that were going to absolutely terrify me. I used to LOVE it, but not so much anymore. So............ this is how Clay & I spent our afternoon...............He had heard that they were having a hunting seminar at the Bass Pro shop which is just down the road a bit & he really wanted to go. Now, I will admit that I wasn't all that overly enthused about a hunting seminar, but hey we would be
sitting in a nice air conditioned store as opposed to the hot steamy theme park, so off we went...leaving the kids to ride to their heart's content. ;-)

This is who we went to see.......Michael Waddell's Bone Collectors. The boys love watching all these guys on their hunting shows. Michael would've LOVED to have gone & we even asked him if he wanted to, but King's Dominion won out for him.

Travis 'T-Bone' Turner & Nick Mundt

Nick & Clay

'T-Bone' & Clay.

I must admit that I totally enjoyed getting to meet these guys. They are so real & down-to-earth! We got autographs for the boys. We were really wishing we had thought about getting Michael's bear picture blown up & taken it to have them sign. Michael would've been thrilled with that..........he thinks T-Bone is awesome!!

Off to Pizza Hut for some supper......a nice ending to a fun family day together!

King's Dominion

Saturday was the 2011 Frito Lay company picnic at King's Dominion. We had a super fun day even despite a little rain. All of these pictures were taken by Ashley......I'll share my pictures in a seperate post.

Waiting to ride the 'Flight of Fear'

A little rain shower passing through

Wet but still having fun!!

Starbucks.......Fairy Tale style. We said it looked like something from 'Shrek'.

In the van, on the way home Saturday night.